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As the numbers piled up against her at the Progressive Conservative leadership convention, MPP Christine Elliott sat smiling in the front row with her three sons, hiding the disappointment.

She was whisked away for a minute or two and then came‎ back on stage, smiling some more.

“I’d like to congratulate Patrick Brown,” she told a crowd of 800, calling on party members to make his election as leader unanimous.

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Later, she was hustled out of the building, refusing to comment to the media but issued a statement that said Brown “has gained the confidence of our members and earned a mandate to lead our party. I wish him every success.”

It was an abrupt end to the 10-month race for Elliott, a lawyer who quickly learned to juggle a career, her triplet boys — one with special needs — charity work and volunteering at her church.

The 60-year-old, who celebrated her latest birthday at the tail end of the gruelling leadership campaign, has been the Progressive Conservative MPP for Whitby—Oshawa since 2006.

Elliott won the riding in a byelection after her late husband, Jim Flaherty, quit the seat to run federally and became finance minister in the Harper government.

She was the first candidate in the leadership race, declaring her intentions late last June, just two weeks after the PCs led by Tim Hudak gift-wrapped a majority for Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals by losing nine seats.

Supporters hoped her early entry into the contest, rebuilding a devastated party punished by voters for Hudak’s controversial promise to cut 100,000 public sector jobs, would keep challengers at bay.

This was Elliott’s second shot at a job she failed to win in 2009, placing third behind Hudak and former MPP Frank Klees. Flaherty, whose sudden death 13 months ago followed a battle with a rare skin disease, had twice tried unsuccessfully to become Ontario PC leader in 2002 and again in 2004.

She was deputy leader under Hudak, a position leadership rival Brown exploited in a bid to tar her as part of the problem, not part of the solution to the party’s last four consecutive election losses to the Liberals.

Elliott, who rented the campaign office used by defeated Toronto mayoralty candidate Olivia Chow, had the backing of 19 fellow MPPs and former PC premier Bill Davis, who led the province from 1971 to 1985.

Even the Ford brothers, Rob and Doug — who are not considered centrists in the party like Elliott — jumped on board the campaign, largely due to close family ties with Flaherty. Rob Ford, however, did not endorse Elliott until his preferred candidate, anti-sex-ed crusader MPP Monte McNaughton, dropped out of the race to support Brown.

Elliott comes across as quiet and soft-spoken, leaving some critics to question whether she can summon the fire and brimstone needed in politics, but one of her sons cautions against that interpretation.

“I’ve heard her being described as ‘too nice,’ ” Galen, now 24, said in a recent interview.

“Just because she doesn’t talk the loudest doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a lot to say. My mom has a lot of inner strength . . . My dad was really into the cut and thrust. My mom’s not really a politician — if you know what I mean.”

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